


Up Where They Stay All Day in the Sun

by SapphoIsBurning



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Bunkers, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Nuclear Winter, Politics, Pool Sex, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 18:58:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11789394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphoIsBurning/pseuds/SapphoIsBurning
Summary: Current events lead Dean and Xavier to have some very frank conversations, and make some urgent memories.





	Up Where They Stay All Day in the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> This comes from my own fear and anger and frustration at the current state of global affairs. I'm blatantly projecting onto these characters, though I think my representation is at the very least plausible and at worst physically impossible. Don't @ me.

"We're closer to a nuclear war than we've ever been in my lifetime," Xavier said. "Like, fuck Reagan--"

"Fuck him," Dean said, gesturing with the joint and holding it out to pass, blowing out a hiss of smoke and shaking his head.

"Yeah, so fuck Reagan but this is even worse than that shit." He took the joint from Dean. He looked at it, turning it back and forth in his hand, before pinching it with his thumb and two fingers and taking a drag.

"I was never afraid of the Russians," Dean said. "I was too young. But, like, now they're not going to nuke us, but they've already fucking nuked us, you know?" He shook his head, rocked forward and back in the chair he had dragged out to the porch.

"Any one thing different," Xavier said. "There are so many things that had to go wrong or get ignored for us to get here." He took another hit.

Dean pressed his lips together. "I wish I had done more. But, like, what the fuck would I have done?"

"We're in the belly of the beast," Xavier said. He passed the joint back to Dean. "And we're paying for the goddamn privilege."

"Well, fuck it," Dean said. "Who knows if we'll live to see another Wrestlemania, fuck, another Christmas, who fucking knows." He winced and inhaled, He held it for a long time, frowning and shaking a little.

"Wanna get married?" Xavier asked.

Dean sputtered and coughed out the lungful of smoke he was holding in.

"I'll take that as a no." Xavier started to get up. "Sorry..."

Dean put a hand out. "It's not a no," he wheezed. "It's a, don't do that to me when I'm eating, drinking, or smoking." He coughed loudly and pounded a fist on his chest. "Never been proposed to before."

"It wasn't a proposal exactly," Xavier said.

"What the fuck are you talking about, then?" Dean asked. "A business arrangement?"

"A lifeline," Xavier said. "I"m tired of living alone. What if something happens. Who's gonna look out for you if the bomb drops?"

"Haven't you heard, Woods?" Dean asked. "I'm a fucking cockroach. I can survive anything."

The night was the loud quiet of summer when there's nothing going on but the bugs are humming and nature is making itself known in a million weird buzzy ways. Three quarters of a moon was visible over the eaves of the house next door.

"I'll get you a ring," Xavier said.

"Oh, a ring," Dean said. "Then I'll definitely marry you."

"Do you want to be Dean Ambrose Woods or Dean Woods Ambrose," Xavier asked flatly. "Or Dean Woods."

"Why am I taking your name, why can't you be Xavier Ambrose?"

"Have you ever been asked, 'Which one of you is the girl?'" Xavier asked.

Dean thought. "No," he said.

"It's the fucking worst."

Dean thought for a minute. "I'm the girl," he said.

"You know you are," Xavier said.

"Girls don't have to take the guy's last name," Dean said with a hint of irritation.

"We could both just be Xambrose," Xavier said. "Wait, no, that doesn't work--"

"Xavier Xambrose," Dean said, snorting a little. "Oh my god, please try to run that by Kofi and E and let me see their faces," he laughed.

"I told them, you know," Xavier said.

Dean caught his breath. "Well it's about fucking time. Roman's known for a whole goddamn year."

Xavier sighed through his nose. "You gonna tell Seth?" he asked.

"You pal around with Seth now, you fucking tell him."

"I don't want to see Seth's face when I tell him I'm marrying the one that got away."

"Oh come on, don't say that, he. Well." Dean let that thought trail off. "He'll find out."

"Do you want to have a church ceremony or like go to a judge or do it it in a backyard," Xavier asked.

"What's the gayest way we can do it," Dean said. "What would be so gay the dirt sheets wouldn't even believe it was real so they wouldn't print it."

Xavier stroked his chin. "Dragoncon?" He asked. "Shit, that's too soon though, I don't think you could get a pass. But, cosplay, maybe--" he sat up straight. "I have a Black Ranger costume. You could be the Blue Ranger."

"I don't want to be Billy, Billy was--"

"Gay?" Xavier asked.

"That's not what I was going to say," Dean huffed. "I want to be the white ranger."

"Everybody wants to be the white ranger but he's really into Jesus and not that cool. But Billy was actually gay. They were super shitty about it to him, too."

"Really?" Dean asked, squinting up at the porch light and the moths circling it.

"Yeah, man," Xavier said.

“This club sucks,” Dean said.

“I’d never join any club that would have me as a member.” Xavier looked off into the middle distance as he quoted from memory.

“Karl Marx,” Dean said.

Xavier turned slowly and glared at him.

“What,” Dean said. “I read.”

“I would join a club that had you, me, the blue ranger, and Karl Marx as a member.” Xavier chuckled dryly. “Do you have a roach clip?”

“We’re making the big bucks now, Woods,” Dean said. “Just stub it out. I got more.”

“For now,” Xavier said.

“You don’t think I got weed in my cockroach bunker,” Dean said.

“Wait, you never said anything about a bunker.”

“Bomb shelter. Buried in the back yard. Wanna see?” Dean stood up.

“No. No, we’ll get trapped in there and it’ll be like Blast from the Past and we’ll just end up going crazy and drinking hot Dr. Pepper. Try to take a black man into a bunker, Dean. Try it.”

Dean put his hands up. “Sorry, thought I was being romantical. What with us being engaged and all. Gotta get that stuff out in the open. I got a bunker, whadda you got?”

“Ooh, on the bunker level?” Xavier winced and sucked his teeth. “Rainbow Dash fursuit. It’s old!” He froze and then relaxed when Dean showed no particular aversion. “It is old, though.”

Dean shrugged. “Could get married in that. Then we’d really not get recognized.”

“Negative,” Xavier said.

“Any other surprises?” Dean asked.

“Other than a genetic predisposition toward hypertension and heart disease,” Xavier said. “You?”

“Nothing else you haven’t seen before, except the inside of the bunker.”

“Cool.”

The haze of weed smoke started to lift. They shifted in their chairs.

Dean stood up. Without saying anything, he shucked off his tee shirt and dove into the pool.

“Is the bunker under the pool?” Xavier asked. “I don’t know where you’d even put it.”

Dean surfaced. “Under the shed over there.” He gestured with his head.

“How do you even get a bunker?” Xavier asked. He walked over to the edge of the pool and sat down on the rough clay tile, sticking his feet in.

Dean shook the water out of his hair and swam over. “I know a guy.”

“You always fucking know a guy, Dean, how do you know a guy who can build you a bunker?”

“Well if you RELLY want to know,” Dean said. “If you rally, really want to know. Big Show has a guy, and he gave me his number.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And he gave me a quote. But it seemed like a lot so I went to this trade show? Where all the people who think the end of the world is coming soon meet up and sell each other generators and powdered eggs and like apocalypse insurance and motorcycle lessons and lasik and whatever?”

“Oh, cool, confederate flag central, why didn’t you bring me,” Xavier said flatly.

“They love gay people too,” Dean said. “It was awkward. But the guy checked out. The only guy who could do better had like a Duck Dynasty beard and some weird pamphlets about fluoride and The Lord and I figured I’d just go with Kevin the chill bunker contractor.”

“When was this?”

“Well, I didn’t pull the trigger on it until November.” Dean winced. “I mean, I didn’t decide to do it until November. So, I guess i have a brand new bunker. It’s not even paid for yet.”

"So if the end comes, you'll make out. You won't have to pay the bunker guy." Xavier kicked his legs.

"I mean, he knows where I live. He could show up."

"Driving his apocalypse tank," Xavier said.

"Come in the pool," Dean said.

Xavier frowned. "Can't we go in the hot tub."

"It's hot in the hot tub. Nice and cool in here." Dean bobbed up and down in the deep end, treading water.

"Come to the shallow end. And don't splash me."

Dean put his hands up innocently. "I wouldn't."

"Or dunk me, or pretend to be a shark."

"What if I am a shark, Woods. How could you ask me to deny my nature." But Dean swam over to the shallow end and walked up and out of the water up the steps, streaming rivulets like a mermaid. He went to shake out his hair but stopped.

Xavier got up from where he was dangling his feet and went over to the way into the pool.

"And don't tell me it's just water," Xavier said.

Dean's forehead wrinkled as he rolled his shoulder unconsciously. "Okay." He held out his hand.

Xavier gripped it tight and stepped gingerly onto the first step.

"I got you, babe," Dean said. "You can trust me. I love you."

Xavier let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He gripped Dean's hand and stumbled the rest of the way into the pool, and Dean led him to where the water was up to their navels.

"How's this?" Dean asked. "You haven't let go of my hand."

"Maybe the weed's making me paranoid," Xavier said. "Also, did you say you love me?"

"Yeah," Dean laughed.

"Can you say that again? I like hearing that."

"I love you," Dean said, slipping his hand through Xavier's grasp and wrapping his arms around his body. "I love that you want to keep me around."

Xavier leaned into Dean's neck and kissed it, getting the salt of Dean's skin under the chlorine. "I need something good right now. I need to make a happy memory."

"Let's make one right now," Dean whispered.

Xavier hummed. "What did you have in mind?"

"How long do you think I can hold my breath?"

With that Dean let go and dropped below the water, pulling at Xavier's swim trunks. They were down in a second and the sensation of the water against his bare skin rocked him.

"Dean. What. Are. You. Doing." Xavier said, but Dean was fully submerged and also fully occupied. He glanced up, looking like some kind of mischievous sea creature with his hair streaming all around him, before slipping Xavier's cock past his lips and letting it warm and harden in his mouth.

"Oh, fuck," Xavier moaned. "You gonna be my little mermaid?" He asked. "You gonna make me part of your world?" He rolled his hips, feeling Dean move with him, and he twisted a strand of Dean's hair around his fingers.

Dean sucked hard and worked the shaft with his hand. A small stream of bubbles surfaced.

"Jesus, Dean, how long *can* you hold your breath? Don't drown on my dick. Dean?"

Dean pulled off and stuck his head out of the water, his hands not leaving Xavier's body, his fist still rolling over the tip of his cock and back down to the base.

"Will you still do me like this in the bunker?" Xavier asked.

"We won't have to go in the bunker," Dean said. "Don't worry about the bunker. Having a bunker is about not having to use the bunker."

"Is that true?" Xavier said. "Oh god, just like that."

Dean's other hand crept around and caressed Xavier's ass, tracing the cleft, circling his asshole. "Can I?" He asked.

"Please," Xavier said.

Dean took a deep breath and went under again. He was opening his mouth under water without losing his breath somehow. Xavier felt a pang of longing, like he wished he knew as much about not drowning as Dean Ambrose did. Dean's finger pressed in as he deep-throated him, surrounding him with so much sensation he had to stop thinking for a minute, had to let himself be loved.

Of course Dean's finger found his prostate and caressed it in just the right way. He was rocked, almost lost his footing, but he put a hand on Dean's shoulder, steady, grounding him. And he felt solid, at the same time that he flew, letting go and spasming. Dean pulled off and stroked him through it, his come mostly disappearing into the water.

Dean grinned, a little shy of being as proud of himself as he was.

Xavier shook his head. "Please let me marry you."

"Oh yeah," Dean said, kissing Xavier's neck and ear. "Gonna be your little mermaid." He laughed. "Happily ever after."

"Happily ever after," Xavier said. "Just like that."


End file.
